Explanation:
Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, grew a spectacularly long and filamentary tail.
The magnificent
tail spread across the sky and was visible for several days to
Southern Hemisphere observers just after sunset.
The amazing tail showed its greatest extent on long-duration,
wide-angle camera exposures.
During some times,
just the tail itself
estimated to attain a
peak brightness of
magnitude -5 (minus five),
was caught by the
comet's discoverer in the
above image just after sunset in January 2007 from
Siding Spring Observatory in
Australia.
Comet McNaught, the brightest comet in decades, then
faded as it moved further into southern
skies and away from the
Sun and
Earth.
Within the next two weeks of 2013, rapidly brightening
Comet ISON might sprout a tail that
rivals even
Comet McNaught.